


Know If It's Worth

by Rubynye



Category: Star Trek XI
Genre: Kittens, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-27
Updated: 2010-09-27
Packaged: 2017-10-12 11:49:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/124527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rubynye/pseuds/Rubynye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Summary/Prompt: "<a href="http://disgrasian.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/070610_04-943-1-_tplq.jpg">This is Sulu's cat.</a> <a href="http://old-blueeyes.livejournal.com/81497.html?replyto=1077593">one of his friends... ridicules him for this, and then Sulu is secretly wounded, and then they make up. with sex.</a> ".<br/></p>
            </blockquote>





	Know If It's Worth

  
Title: Know If It's Worth  
Fandom: Star Trek XI  
Rating: PG-13  
Pairing: Pavel Chekov / Hikaru Sulu  
Summary/Prompt: "[This is Sulu's cat.](http://disgrasian.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/070610_04-943-1-_tplq.jpg) [one of his friends... ridicules him for this, and then Sulu is secretly wounded, and then they make up. with sex.](http://old-blueeyes.livejournal.com/81497.html?replyto=1077593) ".  
Content Advisory: Kittycat, insecurity, schmoop.  
All Thanks To: [](http://merisunshine36.livejournal.com/profile)[**merisunshine36**](http://merisunshine36.livejournal.com/) for the irresistible prompt, [](http://old-blueeyes.livejournal.com/profile)[**old_blueeyes**](http://old-blueeyes.livejournal.com/) for the fantabulous [First Annual Sulu-Off](http://old-blueeyes.livejournal.com/81497.html), and [](http://bauble.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://bauble.livejournal.com/)**bauble** for the majestic name.  
 _Disclaimer:_ None of these characters or their settings belong to me.  
Title from "Starlight" by Muse, as usual.

"Hikaru, I did not mean --" Whenever Hikaru shifts, the sound is enough to render Pavel's shouting unintelligible, though still audible even through a Starfleet-issue titanium-and-mufflecore door. So he gets up and paces, Tiger Lily cupped in his palm; he strokes her with two fingers and feels her purr vibrate into his skin as he listens to Pavel's desperate voice seeping through his supposedly sound- and vacuum- proofed door.

Eventually, he steps up and opens it, just as Pavel yells full blast, "--to apologize you stubborn --," blinks in surprise, and coughs a little, wide-eyed above his hand across his mouth.

Hikaru's ears are ringing -- Pavel can be _loud_ \-- but he pivots, conscious of being gracious, extends his arm and says, "Come in."

Pavel comes in, still staring at him with those big round eyes. Tigerlily chirrups a tiny scolding, and Hikaru resumes stroking her soft fur with his forefinger as the door shuts, as he waits. Eventually Pavel says, "Oh. Hikaru. I--"

"It's okay," Hikaru answers, because he knows he's been kind of a dick about this, though Pavel was such a brat. "I'm sorry I lost my temper."

"I too for provoking you." Pavel squares his shoulders. "But I have a much more respectful name, if you would like." Hikaru nods, and he continues earnestly, "King Tribblius the Third of the Ullian Empire."

That's pretty much the most ridiculous thing Hikaru has ever heard, and he opens his mouth, trying to think of a reply, and bursts out laughing. Pavel's eyes crinkle and sparkle as he starts laughing too, and the tension pops like a soap bubble, the two of them laughing together like they should be. "Queen," he gasps eventually, "She'd have to be Queen Tribblius." He holds Tiger Lily up to his face a moment. "What do you think of that title, kitty kitty?" She squeezes his fingertip between her paws and mews.

Hikaru looks past her at Pavel, his worry-furrowwed forehead and huge shining eyes, and holds out his other hand. Pavel takes it, just for the three steps to the bed, but his fingers are warm. "She does look a bit like a tribble," he concedes as he sits, and Tiger Lily sinks her rose-thorn claws into his finger. "Ow! Okay, okay, you don't, kitty, you don't."

"She is far more intelligent," Pavel offers in return, lifting a hesitant hand. Hikaru beckons, and Pavel reaches out a fingertip and runs it once along her back.

"She's not going to get much bigger," Hikaru tells him, the explanation that went lacking before because of Pavel's incredulous reaction to her. "Dwarf Ship Cats were bred for small lodgings and confined spaces, and she's the runt of her litter." He waggles his finger and Tiger Lily bats at it. "The breeder was going to put her down, so I took her, since she'll always be so little."

"Like me," Pavel says flatly.

Hikaru looks up surprised into stormy eyes. "No, you've grown eighteen millimeters -- what, are you _jealous_?"

"Of everything you touch that isn't me," Pavel blurts, and red immediately wells up in his cheeks, spilling from his ears down his neck as he looks away.

 _Oh, God,_ Hikaru doesn't say, or _Fuck_ or _I knew it._ He waits, as Tiger Lily rolls under his hand and goes boneless on his knee, for Pavel to look up again. When he does Hikaru leans in for a swift and gentle kiss, and pulls back smirking. "Even the _Enterprise_?"

Pavel's relief crinkles to mischief. "No, we share her," he says with a lascivious wink, and Hikaru laughs again, reaching for Pavel's wrist. He scoops up his sleepy-limp cat and rests her in Pavel's hand, cupping his beneath. As Pavel slowly pets Tiger Lily, who yawns and curls herself up, Hikaru lifts his other hand to card it through Pavel's smooth curls.

  
_kittykittykittykitty_   
  


  
Much later, Hikaru wakes to pinpricks and fluff climbing his naked hip. His leg's thrown over Pavel's, his ribs under Pavel's arm; they're tangled up together, still sticky wherever their skins touch, worn out from an extended and enthusiastic bout of make-up sex. Hikaru went to sleep thinking he wouldn't wake up for days, or at least not until Pavel got hungry, but apparently Tiger Lily has scaled the heights of his bed and now his body with some other plan in her fuzzy head.

She strolls down his outer thigh, pulling in her claws for the soft velvet of her pads; Hikaru guesses her destination just before she leaps, but decides to hold his breath and see what happens as she lands daintily on Pavel's waist.

"OW," Pavel cries, jumping with his whole body, and Hikaru catches his hand before he can reflexively smack her across the room. Unperturbed, Tiger Lily walks along his ribs as he shivers with the effort of holding still and hisses, "Hikaru, your cat is perforating me!"

Hikaru lets go to sweep his fingers in her wake, over Pavel's smooth, damp skin. "No permanent damage detected. Want me to get her?"

"Mmm... no, no." Pavel sets his hand on Hikaru's shoulder as Tiger Lily climbs up along his, finally curling up on the bony bump of the joint and washing her back right paw with great deliberation. Then she licks Pavel's shoulder, and he makes a noise that Hikaru generously doesn't tell him is a squeak. " _Your_ cat," Pavel says accusingly as he carefully tugs his other arm from under Hikaru, reaches up and starts petting her, more confidently than before.

"Her name's Tiger Lily," Hikaru answers, trying not to sound too smug. Pavel scowls at him, right up until she starts purring and he's helpless to do anything but smile.


End file.
